Reason to Live
by Boreder
Summary: Malfoy's plan to get slaves backfires and Harry ends up with a harem of girls to care for. Harry/Harem, Powerful!Harry later.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: J. owns Harry Potter and the Potterverse. Some ideas (mainly the lifedebt-into-slave-contract idea) gotten from and heavily influenced by _Enterprise1701d_'s and J_oshua The Evil Guy_'s fic **The Poker Game**, one of my all-time favorite fics.

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Draco Malfoy had a plan.

It was an extremely stupid plan, but he didn't realize it. He wasn't known to be an expectionally cunning person. Loud-mouthed maybe, but not cunning. Except in his own head.

What Malfoy missed in brains, he had in wealth and political power. Or rather, his father had the money and power, but it was practically Draco's too.

Power coupled with stupidility is never a good thing. This time was no exception.

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It was one of the first days of term. Draco Malfoy had joined the ranks of the Death Eaters last summer and had gotten his first assignment, to capture pureblood girls from Hogwarts. With the girls as ransom, the Death Eaters could easily bend many powerful families to their will. Not to mention having some private fun with the girls...

Despite Draco's lack of common sense, he was, by a margin, smarter than his fellow Slytherin Death Eaters, and was thus given the lead on this particular mission. He also got free hands on how to actually accomplish his goal.

That was a grave mistake on the Death Eater's part.

You see, Draco knew he had to kidnap the girls as quietly as possible, without getting expelled or arrested. So he thought out a way to do it legally! Using his powerful connections in the Ministry, he had gotten the preliminary work done on getting current Life Debts turned into Slave Contracts. With his signal, the new law would become active. But first, he had to save some lives...

This was all thought out too. He was going to take a leaf out of Potter's book and defeat a troll. Unlike the idiotic Gryffindor though, he wouldn't stick a wand up the trolls nose! Instead, he'd use a rather dark bone-breaking curse he had learned a while back. Trolls might be pretty magic-resistant, but he was Draco Malfoy! Undoubtedly the most powerful Slytherin of his year, probably of the whole house!

Being the arrogant and over-confident idiot who he was, Malfoy didn't notice all the huge glaring holes of his "plan".

First of all, you can't gain a Life Debt by saving someone you endangered yourself. Solving a self-made problem doesn't net you a reward, it merely evens itself out! You can't have any part in causing the problem if you want to gain a Life Dept.

Secondly, Malfoy really underestimated the troll, both mentally and physically. While very slow-minded creatures, they can be rather unpredictable. It could kill the girls before Malfoy could do anything. Speaking of which, his plans of cursing the troll were most adults had a great deal of trouble subduing a troll. Malfoy would get them all killed.

Luckily, Harry Potter existed.

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Madam Pomfrey was rather busy that morning. First of all, Luna Lovegood had come in before breakfast, saying these things called "Nargles" had infected her head during the summer and asked for a check up. Madam Pomfrey was used to the weird Ravenclaw's "problem", as she had asked for a check-up every year after summer.

She started inspecting Luna immediately, as she knew the girl could be very stubborn and wouldn't leave her alone until she checked her for imaginary animals.

She was about to dismiss Luna when people started pouring in. First came in two Slytherins, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, the latter sneezing loudly. Both seemed to have gotten a nasty case of flu. Soon Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott joined them, also looking rather ill. Behing them were Cho Chang and her friend Marietta Edgecombe.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head, wondering where the sudden epidemic had come from. After checking her reserves, she noticed that she was running low on pepper-up potions. She'd have to go get more from Snape, who was probably still eating breakfast in the Great Hall. Ordering the girls to wait, she went on her way.

Soon after Madam Pomfrey left, the door opened again.

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Outside the Hospital Wing, Malfoy was angry at his imcompetent idiot friends, who had let the troll in too early. Half the required girls hadn't showed up yet, and now it was too late.

He observed from the shadows as the troll went inside the Hospital Wing, causing a lot of screaming and some spell-casting. The troll kept advancing though, and it was time for Draco to intervene.

Grabbing his wand, he ran to the door and took in the sight before him.

The troll had already trashed parts of the Wing, shattering beds and tables. The girls were all covering in the back, some of them pointing their wands at the ugly creature, some crying hysterically.

Malfoy sneered, trained his wand on the troll's head and cast his spell.

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Harry Potter wasn't having a good day. Hermione and Ron had been bickering through the whole morning about Ginny and Ron's position as a big brother. Ginny had broken up with Dean at the start of the term and Ron had been ecstatic. Hermione hadn't liked Ron's attitude, and the subject hadn't been dropped for days.

Harry was getting very annoyed at them. It didn't help that they were causing him a huge headache. Sighing, he began slouching towards the Hospital Wing to get a potion for his head.

He came just in time to hear a huge roar and see Malfoy flying out of the Wing. Malfoy hit the wall and crumbled to the floor, broken. Screams came from the Wing, and Harry wasted no time running in. He freezed on the spot when he saw a troll swing a club at Tracey Davis, missing by inches.

Harry stood still for a second, before running towards the troll, jumping and fastening his arms around the trolls neck, copying his stunt from first year. This time, however, Harry was a bit more experienced. He sticked his wand inside the trolls nose and cast a powerful Reducto-curse.

The outer skin of a troll is very magic-resistant, but the insides are surprisingly weak. The insides of the troll's skull smashed into paste, but the outer head stayed intact. Swaying, the now brainless troll took one final step towards the girls, realized it didn't have anything to think with, and collapsed on it's back, dead. Harry landed on his feet, his wand being covered with troll-bogey once again.

He only managed one look at the wide-eyed girls before he heard glass shattering behind him and saw a horrified Madam Pomfrey.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: J. owns Harry Potter and the Potterverse. Some ideas (mainly the lifedebt-into-slave-contract idea) gotten from and heavily influenced by _Enterprise1701d_'s and J_oshua The Evil Guy_'s fic **The Poker Game**,one of my all-time favorite fics.

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While Harry and the girls were telling about the attack to Dumbledore and the Heads of the Houses and Malfoy was getting treatment for his numerous broken bones, Malfoys' goons, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle, were still going forward with the plan, unaware of their leader's failure. They had ran off immediately after leading the troll to the Hospital Wing and seeing Malfoy go after it. They went to make a floo call to the ministry, forwarding the process of the new law.

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The rest of the day's classes were called off, while the teachers searched the castle for other dangerous creatures. No-one had seen anything out of the ordinary, so the teachers didn't have any leads on the culprits. Everyone was worried, because the troll had defnitely been let out deliberately.

Some people (like most of Gryffindor house) pointed their fingers at Slytherins, but nobody had any proof. In the end, Dumbledore could only tell everyone to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and be careful while walking in the corridors.

Harry was in the spotlight again, much to his annoyance. Everyone wanted to ask details about his short fight with the troll, and his temper was getting the better of him. The girls whom he saved were all quiet about the whole incident, so in the end Harry had to provide all the answers.

Soon he had enough of asnwering questions, and practically ran out of the Common room to find some peace and quiet.

While walking to the library, Harry thought he heard some distant yelling. Fearing another troll attack, he dashed towards the voice. But when he got closer, he recognized the voice and tone. Malfoy was yelling in rage, apparently shouting curses at someone. Harry kept moving closer, noticing a barely opened classroom door. Peeking inside, he saw Malfoy throwing curses at Nott, Crabbe and Goyle, who were trying to dodge the enraged snob. Harry could only wonder what had happened, as he wasn't going to go and interfere. He wasn't afraid of Malfoy, never, but it wasn't his business.

Shrugging, he continued walking to the library.

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The next day dawned slowly. It was Saturday, so most of the students slept longer than usual. Daphne Greengrass, the Slytherin "Ice Queen" wasn't one of those students, as she was eating breakfast in a nearly empty Great Hall.

She was still shaken from her encounter with the troll, but didn't outwardly show it. In public, she always kept her Ice Queen persona, appearing calm, collected and cold. Very few knew the real her, mostly her family and the few true friends she had. Most people didn't look past her beauty or money, making her very wary of other people.

There was only one person in Hogwarts she fully trusted: Tracey Davis, her friend of over ten years.

She didn't have other friends in Hogwarts, Being a Slytherin made sure of that. The other Slytherin girls, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode, were distant acquaintances at best.

Daphne watched as students slowly filled into the Hall. She was still halfway done with her own breakfast, picking on it occasionally. She didn't even look up when the morning owls came flying in. It was only when the owls landed and numerous gasps were heard that she looked up from her breakfast. To her right, Tracey had just received her copy of the Daily Prophet, and was staring at the front page in horror. Before Daphne could ask what was wrong, her copy dropped in front of her and she saw the headlines.

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At the same time, Harry was getting up from bed. Ron was still sleeping soundly, as were the others. After taking a shower and getting dressed, he began heading for breakfast.

He was halfway through the Common room when someone called for him. Turning around, he saw Ginny walking towards him, eyes set on the floor, blushing deeply.

"Good morning Ginny, how are you doing?"

Ginny didn't answer immediately, nor did she look up at Harry. She seemed to be looking for the right words. Harry waited patiently. Finally she stammered: "H-Harry, have you heard about the law Ministry passed yesterday?" She finally looked up to see Harry shaking his head. Blushing even more, she returned her gaze to the floor.

"W-well, I don' know all the details... but... they changed the law about Life Debts... they're making new contracts based on all the pureblood Life Debts...

Harry was getting worried, something was really bothering Ginny. Plus, he was getting a really bad feeling... "Go on, Ginny. What did they do?"

Ginny said something so quietly Harry couldn't hear it. "Sorry, didn't catch that." He leaned closer, and heard her the second time: "All pureblood Life Debts were called in to make slave-contracts..."

Harry stared, an extremely bad feeling cooking up in his stomach. "Slave-contracts...?

"Yes" Ginny whispered "and because I owe a life-debt to you from my first year, I'm now magically binded to be your s-slave... Master." She looked up to see his reaction,

Harry just stared blankly at her, his mind reeling. After a minute of silence, Ginny nervously asked "Master?"

Shaking his head, Harry nearly shouted "How can they do that?! How could a law like that even get passed?!" Noticing Ginny's trembling a bit, he put his hand on her shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. "Ginny, you don't need to call me master. I'm not going to comply with this. How can I release you?"

To his surprise, Ginny seemed to shrink in on herself, seemingly on the verge of tears, "Y-you don't want me?"

"It's not about that! I d-do like you, but this contract isn't right! I don't want to take away your freedom!". Seeing her slightly happier look, he continued "So how can I release you?".

"To be honest...you can't. Well, you can, but Id still be a slave, just not for you. Slaves can only be sold or traded. If you release me, I'd be s-sold to the highest bidder..." Ginny started crying silently, "Please don't release me Harry...I...I don't want to become a slave to some creepy old man or worse, the Malfoys..." Harry hugged the girl, letting her sob agaisnt his chest. They stayed like that for some time, before Harry detached himself from Ginny, keeping his arms on her shoulders and smiling at her. "Ginny, I won't release you if you don't want me to. I'm not going to use you as a slave, either. I'm not going to force you to do anythingt, or restrict your life in any way. I want you to be happy, or at least as happy as possible. We were both forced into this, so let's make the most out of it.

Ginny's face, still wet from tears, lightened up and she hugged him so hard he couldn't breathe. "Thank you, Harry..." Said her muffled voice from within the front of his robes. "I've fancied you for a long time, and while being your slave wasn't one of my most common fantasies, I'll take what I can."

Harry just hugged her back, a small voice in the back of his head cheering. He had recently started fancying Ginny himself, but with her recent break-up with Dean and Ron being over-protective, he hadn't made any moves on her.

Suddenly Harry's face fell. He remembered Ron, and Ginny's other brothers, who would probably want to have a few _words_ with him. He doubted there would be anything left of him after those conversations.

Ginny seemed to be reading his thoughts, as she said: "Don't worry about my family, my parents already know about this, and while not _very happy_ about it, they can only accept it. And **I'll** have a talk with my brothers, they won't do anything to you. Unless they want to be hexed to next week."

"Thanks Gin" Harry quietly said, starting to walk out of the Common Room, Ginny walking alongside him.

As the Fat Lady moved out of the way, Harry suddenly stopped on his tracks. Seven pairs of eyes were locked into him. Then he heard a chorus of voices saying "Hello...Master."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: J. owns Harry Potter and the Potterverse. Some ideas (mainly the lifedebt-into-slave-contract idea) gotten from and heavily influenced by _Enterprise1701d_'s and J_oshua The Evil Guy_'s fic **The Poker Game**,one of my all-time favorite fics.

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Harry didn't say anything for a moment, his mind processing the sight in front of him.

Standing closest to him was Luna Lovegood, the odd girl from Ravenclaw whom Harry had met last year. She believed in the strangest things and had a unique sense of logic. Due to this, she was often called "loony". After the Department of Mysteries incident, Harry regarded her as one of his best friends. Luna, unlike the other girls who were in various states of distress, smiled serenely at him.

On Luna's right side were two of her fellow Ravenclaws, Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe, who were both seventh year students. They appeared to be very uncomfortable, both staring at the ground with puffy, red eyes. Had they been crying?

Harry hadn't been on speaking terms with either of them after Marietta betrayed the DA. The word "SNEAK" was still very faintly visible on her face, thanks to Hermione's crafty spellwork.

Cho's and Harry's date last year was one of the biggest failures in a long time. Harry was pretty sure it could have worked out if Cho hadn't still been mourning Cedric's death.

Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott were standing next to the Ravenclaws. They looked visibly nervous as well, but not as much as Cho and Marietta.

Harry had to admit he didn't know them too well. They were in the same Herbology lessons and sometimes talked there. Hannah was more outgoing of the two, while Susan had a wicked sense of humor.

The last two girls behind Susan and Hannah were mostly unfamiliar to Harry. He recognized them as Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, both from Slytherin, but that was all he knew about them. He couldn't recall ever talking to either, they always seemed to only mind their own business, away from everyone else. Most prominently they weren't part of Malfoy's group.

While most of Harry's mind was identifying everyone, some part of it had been going over what the girls had said. "Master? But that means..."

Suddenly it all sunk in. Harry felt his legs go weak as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Then everything went dark.

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Luckily Ginny managed to catch the unconscious Harry before his head connected to the stone floor. After lying him down carefully she tried to _ennervate_ him, but it didn't work.

Suddenly the Fat Lady moved and Hermione stepped out. She stopped immediately when she saw Harry lying on the floor, circled by rather distressed looking girls. "What happened to him?"

"He heard some, uh, shocking news..." Ginny answered distractedly, as she was still trying to wake Harry.

The Slytherins muttered something Hermione couldn't make out. She silently wondered what they were doing here in the first place. And what news could possible cause Harry to faint? He was the most courageous person she had ever met!

Ginny fianlly managed to revive Harry. He stared at the girls for a few seconds wide-eyed before saying "Dumbledore. He can sort this out. He has to!"

Hermione didn't have a chance to ask anything as Harry stood up and quickly started to walk towards the headmaster's office, every girl following his lead.

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Albus Dumbledore had just returned to Hogwarts. He had spent his morning in the Ministry, trying to sort out the mess the new law had caused. After several hours, the disastrous law had been removed, along with several corrupted ministry members.

Unfortunately, it was too late for the affected. While new contracts wouldn't be made, the already existing ones were very binding. Dumbledore chided himself for overlooking so many little details.

The old laws relating to slavery had been in effect for the last thousand years, though they hadn't been needed very often during his years. After the slave-business had decreased to a mininum, it was forgotten about.

Now several pureblood witches and wizards were slaves and he couldn't do anything about it. The beneficiary side of the contract held all the power over it. It was reinforced by magic, so even the ministry couldn't interfere.

There was one thing Dumbledore didn't immediately understand: Why did this happen? It looked to be the work of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but they couldn't possibly benefit very much from it, could they? After all, they weren't known for saving people.

Quite the contrary, Dumbledore knew at least one Death Eater who was enslaved by this contract. Peter Pettigrew oved his life to Harry Potter. Tom must have found out by now, and Dumbledore doubted anyone would ever see Pettigrew alive again.

His thoughts turned to Harry just as his office door opened, letting in Harry and several girls. The office suddenly seemed almost crowded.

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As Harry walked in, he saw the headmaster looked quite grave. The expression only amplified when he saw all the girls entering his office. He sat down but didn't get a chance to speak before the headmaster started. "Good morning Mr Potter, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis, Miss Chang, Miss Edgecombe, Miss Abbott, Miss Bones and Miss Lovegood. How can I help you today?"

Harry was rather amazed the headmaster was able to say all that in single breath. He was about to talk when he was cut off by the back. "I'm not Lovegood anymore, headmaster." It was Luna. There were some murmuring from the other girls except Hermione, who was extremely puzzled. She had followed them all to the office without even thinking about it, as she wanted to know what was going on.

Dumbledore sighed, and looked suddenly older. "Am I right when I assume this is about the newest law change?" At their nods he continued "Unfortunately, even though the law has been dropped, the contracts made because of it are still in effect. They are magically binding, and therefore unbreakable."

The girls (minus Hermione) knew as much, but Harry looked crestfallen. "Ca-can't you do anything? I don't want slaves! From what I've heard, this'll ruin their lives! How can the Ministry allow this? How can anyone allow this?!"

At this point Harry heard a bemused voice: "You...don't want...us?"It was Tracey. The other girls looked at him too. Harry noticed they looked almost...hurt. Few looked panicked as well. "No! I mean, no, I don't want to take your freedom away. Ginny told me that released slaves are sold to the highest bidder, is this correct?" He asked the headmaster, who nodded.

"I'm not going to release you if you don't want me to." he said turning back to the girls, who looked slightly relieved.

"That is good, because I have my suspicions about this whole ordeal." Dumbledore said. "I believe the troll attack yesterday and the law change are connected. These young women, among others, were afflicted with a case of flu at exactly the same time, while a troll was lead towards the Hospital Wing-"

"Malfoy!" Tracey and Daphne gasped at once. "He tried to save us yesterday. I bet he tried to get us indebted to him!" The others realized this as well.

Dumbledore continued speaking "I cannot say anything agaisnt Mr Malfoy's attempts. However, if you were to be freed now, I'm afraid the Death Eaters could very well buy you as hostages. I would have suggested selling the girls back to their families, but unfortunately all slave-trade is done as an auction."

Harry raised his arm to ask a question, and once prompted, turned to Luna.

"You said you weren't a Lovegood anymore, Luna. What do you mean?"

It was Daphne who asnwered him "Slaves lose all their rights, as well as their properties and last names, Potter." She was still behind her Ice Queen mask, which was weird looking at her current position.

"This reminds me that there is, infact, one way to become free from the slave status." Dumbledore recalled. "But in order to do so, the master must marry the slave, or this case, slaves."

"I have two questions." Harry said. "First, isn't multi-marriage illegal? At least it is in the muggle world."

"Wizarding law doesn't have anything agaisn't it, as it was quite common back in the day. So yes, it is completely legal."

"Uhh, okay. Secondly, If I married someone and then divorced, would they return to being slaves?"

"First of all, divorce in the wizarding culture is a very complicated process. And unfortunately yes, they would return to their earlier status, which is slavery."

Harry was getting a bit desperate. "So what do we do?" He asked, head down.

"I will ask the house-elves to arrange the Gryffindor married quarters into something suitable for you. The contracts cannot be dissolved, but I will look into the laws, maybe there is something that has been forgotten. And now I must bid you good day."

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As Harry and his slaves and Hermione stepped out of the headmasters office, Harry felt he really needed some rest. But before that, he'd talk to his...slaves. _That sounds so wrong! _

Hermione stepped in front of Harry, looking straight at him.

"Harry..."


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